Kenyan Government Closes All Schools Over Teachers' Strike

The government has closed all public and private schools from Monday following the teachers’ strike

However, Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination candidates will remain in school, the Education ministry said on Friday.

In a circular sent to education officials, Education Secretary Leah Rotich said the ministry had revised the school term dates for both private and public schools.

The circular said that Standard One to Standard Seven pupils and Form One to Form Three students would go home, as there was no learning going on since the start of the strike.

“The revision of the time dates for primary and secondary schools has been necessitated by the fact that very little or no learning has been going in most of these institutions in the last three weeks with the exception of the examination classes,” said Ms Rotich.

The Education secretary has asked the teachers to continue assisting the 2015 examination candidates.

“It is expected that TSC teachers who are in school and BOM teachers will continue to teach and prepare KCPE and KCSE candidates, (and) those already engaged in Knec examination management will also be expected to perform their duties as per the Knec Act 2012,” said Ms Rotich.

ALREADY PAID FEES

The education boss, however, did not say whether school fees parents have already paid to private schools for the third term would be refunded.

Last year, when schools lost three weeks due to a strike, Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang asked parents to work with their specific schools to have the money refunded or be forwarded to the next term.

On Friday, the Kenya National Examinations Council launched this year’s national examination and gave the dates and the numbers of those scheduled to sit the tests.

Kenya National Examinations Council Secretary Joseph Kivilu said they have registered 937,467 KCPE and 525,802 KCSE candidates.

He added that the KCPE examination would commence on November 10 and end on November 12, whereas KCSE theory papers would start on October 12.

Because of the strike, some schools had started sending students home as some had become unruly.

The Education Secretary said that learners being left idle under the care of few teachers had resulted to tension building up among them.

“Some of the incidences of insecurity in schools had been reported by the heads of institutions and field officers during the said period,” said Ms Rotich.

He added that the Ministry of Education needed to safeguard the security of learners and staff and school property.